Celtic Women draw crowd The Republican Springfield, MA

[Don]

Celtic Women draw crowd
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Republican, 1860 Main Street, Springfield, MA

SPRINGFIELD - It was a big weekend for the Mass Mutual Center in downtown Springfield, with two major concert events scheduled for the facility. While country star Martina McBride was scheduled to play yesterday, the weekend kicked off on Friday with an international affair featuring Celtic Women.

The group, consisting of four vocalists and a fiddler (backed by a full band and additional vocalists), gracefully swept through a two-hour performance in front of a crowd of several thousand fans.

Celtic Women came to the attention of music fans largely through their PBS special which initially aired in 2005. The publicity garnered from repeated airings of the concert has turned the women into something of an international phenomenon.


It was fiddler Mairead Nesbitt who opened the show, whirling about a large stage that featured a grand piano on one side and strings and whistles on the other. The rear guard consisted of back up singers and two large drum risers, each with an impressive collection of instruments.

The women arrived with "The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun" as their first offering as a group, before splintering off to do solo versions of "Caledonia" (Lisa Kelly), "Danny Boy" (Meav Ni Mhaolchatha), and Chloe Agnew's "The Prayer."

Singing in Gaelic, Orla Fallon followed up the second instrumental interlude provided by Nesbitt after which Fallon, Mhaolchatha and Kelly reprised "Ornico Flow."

The group balanced the set list with an equal distribution of songs from their self-titled debut and their latest release, "Celtic Women; A New Journey." Each song was treated with sweeping arrangements and wrapped in grand crescendos.

The Celtic Women do aim for a bit of mysticism with the ancient sound of tin whistles, flowing robes, and slight movements of Stepford-like symmetry. They say nothing at all during the show, save for a single thank you at the close.

The evening was split into two segments with a perfectly timed 20-minute intermission. The second half of the show began with the thunder of bodhrans and the shrill of Nesbitt's fiddle.

It was the upbeat "At the Ceili" that served as the centerpiece of the second half of the performance, while Fallon's harp and vocal on "Carrickfergus" was also a highlight.

After Lisa Kelly's run through "The Voice," the show concluded with Agnew delivering "You Raise Me Up" and the entire ensemble joined together for "Spanish Lady."

By DONNIE MOORHOUSE
Music writer
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Always Remember All Things Are Possible With God !!

[celtic_girlakp]

It was very similar to that in Atlanta when I went. I know that those who saw the show will be just as impressed as I was.